Historic Fish win for star duo

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Cradock - Hank McGregor and Grant van der Walt became the first crew to win a hat-trick of victories in the Hansa Fish River Canoe Marathon, shattering the race record at the end of a race that they totally dominated from start to finish.

McGregor now holds every national single and doubles paddling title after having won a clean sweep of surfski, flatwater marathon and river marathon titles in the calendar year, and goes into the world marathon championships in two weeks’ time in prime form.

The pair, racing in the colours of the newly formed Team Best 4 Kayak Centre, posted a flawless final stage to lower the 2006 race record set by McGregor partnering Len Jenkins by 61 seconds.

"It’s my fourth win overall and my third with Grant in three years and to have broken the record at the 30th anniversary is something really special, said McGregor.

"We conserved ourselves during the first hour as we knew we were out on our own but we dug in after Gauging weir when we realised we could still break the race record," he added.

"It was a completely different race from last year when we were completely blown at the finish. Things really worked out for us this time. Last year we had problems that cost us but this year we had a really clean race," said Van der Walt.

They won by five minutes from the Cape surfski duo of Tom Schilperoort and Jasper Mocké, who provided the biggest surprise result of the elite men by upstaging the strong field of the country's best river marathoners. They posted the fastest time on the final stage to snatch the Canoeing SA silver medal ahead of the flying Germans Tobias Bong and Achim Overbeck, overtaking the flagging crew of sprinters Greg Louw and Mike Arthur who slipped back to fourth place from their overnight second.

"It came down to a sprint finish," said Mocké, who got engaged just days before the race.

"We came over Gauging weir first and put in a huge sprint which gave us a nice gap going into Marlow portage and that's when we went for it. We paddled our hardest until the end to beat the Germans."

The Germans were thrilled to race onto the podium at the end of a race littered with accidents and misfortune.

"We had a much better day today, no trees and no blood which was great but we have realised we are no good at portaging," said Tobias Bong. "We are extremely happy with our third."

"We were doing 200m sprints only three weeks ago and so our lack of endurance was exposed," said Arthur. "We're so happy to have paddle into fourth place."

The women’s title fell to Abby Adie and Hilary Pitchford, who also lead the race from start to finish to post a 10 minute victory margin that included a conservative option to portage Cradock weir to eliminate any further risk from their race.

"We were more than happy to run Cradock weir it's a 50/50 shot and we didn't need to shoot it at that stage of the race," said Pitchford, who is currently leading the women's standings on the International Canoe Federations world tour.

The pair were in superb form, shooting Keith's Flyover rapid with aplomb on the first day, and both oozing confidence in their form and preparations on the river.

"This is my first time on the podium and first time of the top step and I'm absolutely over the moon," she added. "It's a dream come true. (Her boyfriend ) Deon Bruss won it in his 10th Fish and so to have done it in my 10th is so special for me," she added.

The silver medal fell to the plucky sprinters Tiffany Kruger and Jen Hodson who had to battle through the pack after being started in the 'A' batch after failing to make the elapsed time cut-off.

"It was a long day for us and we're pretty tired," said a tired Hodson. "Both of us are actually sprinters so this sort of distance is a big ask."

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